Mass Release
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day 1116: Rachel and Puck get called into the principal's office, and they can only guess the reason why. - Project No Day But Today series


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 53rd cycle. Now cycle 54!_

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**"Mass Release"  
Rachel/Puck & Rent company  
Project No Day But Today series  
_(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)_  
**

Principal Figgins' voice had come over the PA system, calling Rachel Berry and Noah Puckerman to his office, and even though they were spread out across McKinley, over thirty heads turned up, all of the cast and crew of their Rent production. It was just the two of them being called in, no more information, but still they knew, there was no way this didn't have anything to do with what they had all been secretly working on. Rachel had gotten a few looks from the ones in her class as she stood, but she tried not to look back at them as she walked out into the hall. There she had been on the verge of hyperventilating, but then she saw Puck, coming from his own class, and he came along with her toward the office.

"Do you think it's…" she started.

"What else could it be? Pretty sure I'm not getting called in for any sort of excellence prize," he pointed out. "Do you think they found out?"

"They're going to expel us all…" she started panicking, and he took her hand.

"We'll fix it," he promised, and she nodded, breathing out.

When they arrived, the first impression they got was, if it wasn't about the musical, then they were in trouble anyway. Waiting in the office with Figgins were Schuester and Coach Sylvester. The coach looked like she couldn't wait to get at them, while Will met them with an apologetic look. He had always said, if someone else questioned him on it he wouldn't be able to lie for them, and now…

"Miss Berry, Mr. Puckerman, please sit," the principal indicated the chairs before his desk.

"Look, whatever it is, it wasn't Rachel's idea, it was me, so whatever you need to do…" Puck immediately started.

"Noah…" she interrupted him, shaking her head.

"All me," he insisted, and Figgins raised his hand to quiet them both.

"Hate to break it to you, but your director here already told us it was his doing," Sue spoke up, and Rachel and Puck both looked to Will, surprised. He did lie for them; he wouldn't look right at them.

"Mr. Schuester is looking at a month's suspension, but the two of you are not out of the woods yet," Figgins spoke on, and Rachel gasped, shaking her head.

"Wait, he didn't…" she started, but Figgins wasn't listening. He turned his computer screen toward them.

"Would you care to explain this?" he pressed a key and the office was filled with the sounds of the collected voices of the Rent company, as the video they had put together a week before played on the screen. They sat, unsure what to say or do… there was no point pretending like it wasn't them.

"We didn't put it up there," Puck maintained. "That was supposed to be for us…"

"Puck," Will spoke up, shaking his head.

"It's a little late for staying quiet, Mr. Schue, and you shouldn't be punished for…"

"Believe me, you want me to take the suspension," Will gave him a look. "You're lucky you're all getting off with detention." Puck wanted to say more, they could see it in his face, but looking to Will, to Rachel, he knew the best thing for all of them at the moment was that he hold his tongue. So he sat back down, begrudgingly.

For the next half hour, little by little, each and every one of their cast members, who were seen and identified on the video, were called in and handed their detention 'sentence.' The only ones who could be spared were Kurt and Blaine, off at Dalton. Rachel and Puck had to sit there and see each one of them go by. They could imagine the rest of the school was starting to wonder what was happening, with so many people getting called in. After they were done, save for Rachel and Puck, they would get sent right back to class, and the whispers started.

That afternoon, there were twenty-three of them sitting in detention. They hadn't managed to talk to one another since the shame parade had taken place at the start of last period. They had been meant to be in Glee Club, most of them, but that wasn't going to be happening, not today and not for the next month. As nightmares went, this was getting there. The one thing they could consider in any way 'lucky' was that they had gotten Mr. Thompson as their detention monitor, and within five minutes he would be asleep. Once he had nodded off, the group turned to one another.

"Alright, who posted the video?" Puck addressed the rest of them. Voices emerged, all at once, and Rachel shushed them, indicating the sleeping teacher. Even then, what they got was that none of them was taking responsibility, all of them claimed it wasn't them.

"It could have been one of the others, the new crew. They're not here," Gus pointed out. "We didn't give them up…" Santana had pulled out her phone, searching out the video. It was easier to find than she would have expected, but still.

"Who's zactic98?" she asked, and Ellie sat up.

"Oh, I'm going to kill him," she groaned, and the others looked to her. "It's my little brother Zack," she explained. "He keeps messing with my computer, he does crap like this all the time."

"Do you have his password, can you take it down?" Rachel asked, and she nodded, so Santana handed her phone over. As Ellie took hold of the phone, she paused.

"Woah…"

"What?" Lizzie asked.

"Have you seen the view count?" Ellie turned the phone around for them to see. The surprise spread across all of their faces. "He put it up six days ago," she added.

"Maybe we should leave it up," Miranda suggested. "The harm's already been done by now," she pointed out, and many nodded approval.

"What does it mean for the musical though? Are we still doing it?" Annie asked.

"I don't know, we might have to cancel it," Rachel sighed, and the mood could practically be felt as it dropped.

"Hang on, let's not get ahead of ourselves," Puck spoke up. "We let a few days go by, let things calm down, see what happens… then we make a decision."

That had been the consensus, and so they waited. Only as the days passed, they noticed something else start to happen. Whether they liked it or not, the lot of them getting called in had stirred curiosity. Even Kurt and Blaine had found out, and when they heard what had happened to all of them, to Schuester, they had wanted to help, not thinking it was fair that they should get off without blame when all of them were being punished, but there was really nothing they could do, at least not about the detention.

Then one morning Tina had come dashing in, stopping to talk to each of the cast members she could get a hold of, and after she would tell them what she had to say, each of them looked shocked, happily so. When Rachel and Puck had seen this, they had gone up to her. "What's going on?" Rachel asked. Tina pulled out her phone, and after calling up the site, she showed them… The view count hadn't just gone up, it had exploded.

"It's everywhere," she revealed with a smile, leaving the co-directors speechless. "We're everywhere."

THE END

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******A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
****In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
************always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!**


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